Day 1

Hello everyone, I thought maybe I would start an online acne diary this time around. I just switched Derms so I am on all new stuff. This is going to be my way to see if I make any progress! I'll give you some background information. My name is Kacy, I am 17 years old and a senior in high school. I've been suffering with acne since the end of seventh grade. Throughout eighth grade, my skin had mild to moderate acne, mostly affecting my cheeks. It has continued to slowly get worse throughout my high school career, and for the past two years, I've been getting some cystic acne as well. My skin scars extremely easy, so I have lots of flat red dark spots. My skin is also really sensitive and dries out quickly. I have tried it all, from three rounds of Proactiv to Skin ID and Murad, Differin, Ziana, other Retin-A topical creams, other oral pills besides Doxycycline, over the counter products like Neutrogena and Clearasil, and so on. I feel like nothing that I do ever works. It helps a little then everything goes back to the way that it was before. I am extremely frustrated with my acne and scarring. It's really not fair that us acne sufferers have to deal with this daily. Sometimes I don't even want to go to school because I hate putting on pounds of foundation and makeup every day in order to help conceal my acne. All I want is to be able to go out without having to slather on cover up and feel confident about my skin. I always feel like people are looking at my acne when they look at me and they don't see me for me. I realize that it could be worse, but trying so hard and accomplishing nothing really gets to you sometimes. I really hope that what my Derm prescribed actually works this time. It would seriously be the greatest thing ever if by the end of my senior year that my acne cleared up (hopefully for good!). I'm just sick of looking at all of my friends skin and seeing no blemishes. It bothers me when people complain about a "breakout" when in reality, there's one pimple. Anyways, I'll probably be posting on this every week or so just for me to check my progress! Hopefully you can stick with me on my journey to clear skin!

Here is my current (as of today) routine:

75mg of Monodox (Doxycycline) 2 x day

CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser (Morning)

CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser (Night)

CeraVe PM Lotion (Night)

Olay Moisturizer (Morning)

Aczone 2 x day

Epiduo every other day

And I might as well post pictures of my skin now so I can later see how far I've come! I just washed my face and applied all of my topicals. Here are just my cheeks because they are the majority of my problem. The cheek that looks worse is my right one. Here is a link to my gallery.